The House of Mirth

‘The House of Mirth’ is a 1905 novel by Edith Wharton, one of the most famous American authors of the early 20th century. Wharton’s writings were known for their witty presentation on upper class society in America. The novel tells the story of the beautiful, much-desired Lily Bart who has been raised to be one of the perfect wives of the wealthy upper class, but her spark of character and independent drive prevents her from becoming one of the many women who will succeed in those circles. Though her desire for a comfortable life means that she cannot marry for love without money, her resistance to the rules of the social elite endangers her many marriage proposals. The novel traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society.
One of Wharton's most bracing and nuanced portraits of the life of women in a hostile, highly ordered world, ‘The House of Mirth’ exposes the truths about American high society.

Edith Wharton was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, for her novel, The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, in 1996. Her other well-known works are The House of Mirth, the novella Ethan Frome, and several notable ghost stories.